U.S. Rep. John Boehner was quoted in a speech saying the new health care law "will kill jobs in America, ruin the best health care system in the world, and bankrupt our country." This is nothing more than a blatant lie and he keeps saying it over and over again, and nobody challenges him.

No wonder Americans are confused about the health care law. All you have to do is check the facts according to the World Health Organization and the Congressional Research Service report to Congress comparing U.S. health care to that of other rich countries. Our health care system is not the best in the world, and it is not even close, and by not challenging these statements, a blatant lie becomes a fact, and the confusion continues.

M. Leslie Nichols, Safety Harbor

Marco Rubio

Conservative wave

Despite your best efforts, the people of Florida have elected an overwhelming conservative majority to all levels of government.

Wednesday your editorial had the gall to preach to Sen.-elect Marco Rubio on how to conduct himself in Washington. Rubio realizes that even if he follows your recommendations to the letter, when he runs for re-election your editorial board will endorse his opponent no matter who it is, as long as there is a D after the name.

How does it feel to be so out of touch with the people of Florida?

Mike Gonzalez, Brooksville

Marco Rubio

The Cuban experience and its lessons are lost

The Cuban exile experience was painfully important for those of us who lived it. My family lost everything, and my father lost his life to Cuba's revolution.

As children, we suffered the horrible burden our parents bore and did what we could to assimilate into the North American mainstream. In large majority, the Cuban population did whatever was needed to survive. Dignity was important, but doctors scrubbed floors until they were able to get U.S. credentials, and most parents worked to the bone to get their families through.

During my childhood, while North American children ran around "leaving it to Beaver" and feeling joyful abandon, I was strictly schooled regarding freedom and the notion that liberty should be a right granted to all and not just some people.

To my understanding, the idea of equity and the right to claim it is the underpinning of any great and pluralistic society that hopes to endure. Every bit as Cuban-American as Marco Rubio, that is where my similarity with him ends.

I am profoundly disappointed in this election. Since his earliest days as a Washington aide, Rubio has supported disturbing right-wing ideology and has proved to be a lackey for special interests. As a political figure, Rubio in no way represents intelligent political moderation. As a U.S. senator, his vision of North American politics will have no ideological commitment to respecting the needs of the poor and disfranchised.

Ironically, Rubio's political style is more closely aligned with the corrupt spirit of Latin American politics than with the freedom from social and economic oppression envisioned by the heroes of democracy.

Must history always repeat itself? Today is a sobering day for me. I will remember the sacrifices my family and father endured in the name of freedom, and I will mourn the results of this election.

Jacqueline C. Diaz, Redington Shores

Gubernatorial race

Money has spoken

Now that we have a new governor, we should remember that big money and lobbyists have stolen our election.

I wonder if Rick Scott will plead the Fifth when times get tough; after all he did 75 times in the past.

What happened to honesty, qualification and, most important, true dedication to the people of Florida?

I guess California got it right: Meg Whitman could not buy the election. Voters there were paying attention.

P.A. Pero, Dunedin

Gubernatorial race

The new aristocracy

Welcome to the new aristocracy.

Next time, let's eliminate the middlemen (and women) and just sell the office of governor to the highest bidder. Think how much revenue would be saved by skipping the formality of election. Think how much revenue the state would gain instead of letting a "candidate" blow all that dough on a baseless smear campaign.

Plus, we'd have the luxury of seating our new monarch with at least some hope that he's not a bald-faced liar with no credentials, no scruples, no decency — not to mention no endorsements and no list of accomplishments. What would any office seeker need those for? Florida voters just proved that none of those matter.

David Brothers, Tampa

Political campaigns

Cash works against us

A recent Supreme Court ruling foolishly equated money in politics with freedom of speech. Here is how money in the political process acts directly against democracy:

Rich corporations pay off politicians who make it easy for these companies to outsource the jobs of U.S. citizens under the mantra of "free trade." (Many millions of such jobs have thus been lost over the last 10 years.) Rich corporations pay off politicians to make it easy for them to import foreign workers from Third World countries to displace the jobs of U.S. citizens, including foreign professionals who will work for half the salary of an American professional.

An unholy alliance between greedy, rich corporations (who do not want to pay a living wage or benefits to U.S. citizens) and rich, bigoted liberals (who hate traditional America) pay off politicians to ensure that a steady stream of foreign workers floods the continental United States — increasing dangerous crime; ruining local public school systems; draining government, public and private health care resources; making once-decently paying U.S. jobs disappear; and ultimately lowering the wages and benefits of legal U.S. citizens.

Rich corporations also pay off politicians who make it easy for banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, telecommunication companies and drug companies to cheat U.S. citizens.

John Campo, Tampa

You can't keep these bad ideas downOct. 28

Use facts, not ideology

Columnist Thomas Friedman puts his finger squarely on our current political situation in his final paragraph when he says,

"A dysfunctional political system is one that knows the right answers but can't even discuss them rationally, let alone act on them." There is no greater proof of this than in this latest election cycle, where facts, reason and science give way to mendacity and ideology.

In the end, almost all our problems, real or perceived, can be solved with the use of facts, reason and science combined with a healthy dose of compromise. But looking at the political landscape that is not going to happen and dysfunction will be the norm for the foreseeable future. The irony is that we will watch the rest of the world pass us by and we will wonder why.